Tinnitus sufferer: is it the speakers or the 24bits/192kHz


I have tinitus and have had it for 30+ years.  There is no cure and I know the best way to handle it is to ignore it.  But lately my tinnitus has been going off the scale.  The "lately" seems to have coincided with streaming Qobuz Hi-Res and listening on a PS Audio DirectStream DAC and pulling my Magnepan 1.6 out of storage.  Now I have been known to play too loud on "A" song- but by and large the volume is down to where I could easily speak to somone in the room.

I have thought about maybe changing to to Harbeth, Dyn, Sonus Faber or other speakers more focused on midrange.  But have also wondered if it is the high quality of sound that I am listening to that is perhaps stimulating my very high pitch ringing?

So, any fellow tinnitus folks out there with an opinion on this? 
mocktender

Showing 1 response by lg1

I stream Tidal and also play LPs.  On some of the digital (and it is present for me with some of their “Masters” offerings as well as a small number of “CD” songs that sound very good otherwise)), I hear a different kind of ringing than what is the case with the usual hiss of my mild tinnitus....best way I can describe it is that, eons ago, one of my first jobs was as a stocker in a dept. store and I’d encounter much the same high frequency noise I’m hearing now on some of these Tidal songs whenever I was working in certain storage rooms.  It was barely perceptible but enough so that I mentioned it to my boss and he told me it was the (ADT) security system. Anyway, I don’t run into this noise with LPs and it’s not an impediment to my enjoying the digital music but my ears have picked up this difference between these two sources.  Using a tube integrated with JBL L65s, whose tweeter can tend toward “tinnitus unfriendly”...